Narendra Modi has been elected Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy in May 2014.

Now that the euphoria of the elections has abated, the BJP must try to face ground realities. The challenges facing Modi are enormous given India’s entrenched social complexities.

Speaking at a rally in Gujarat after his party’s victory in May 2014, Narendra Modi  pledged for a “shining India” that would make the 21st century “India’s century”. “India’s social differences will come together and make a fl ag, just like different threads come together to  weave a cloth”, he said, adding that with the BJP in control, “a new foundation has been laid”.

By whipping up a frenzy of high expectations and raising the stakes high during the campaign trail, Modi seems to gamble with his own political career without perhaps little realizing the gigantic task that lies ahead. Already, the ‘Modi wave’ which swept across India seems to  have subsided. The election of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the recent Delhi state election in a way demonstrates that Indian voters are volatile and cannot be taken for granted.

True, Narendra Modi won the national election in 2014 on the platform of development, good governance and economic change. The clamour for change reverberated throughout as the Manmohan Singh led coalition government was stuck in a paralysis mode and Rahul Gandhi proved that he was too weak a challenger to the firebrand Modi.

The Cambridge educated Gandhi was no match for the railway platform tea seller's son who studied political science at an obscure Gujarat university. Modi emerged as a brilliant public speaker galvanising the Indian population when for once the caste factor had little or no effect. Not ashamed of his humble beginning and though the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy, he still clings to his ordinary trappings.

He eats lunch in the Parliament canteen, sharing table with the common people, pays from his pocket the ordinary thali meal costing about 14 Mauritian rupees. That’s Narendra Modi who identifies himself roots and branches with the Indian masses.

But as Rajdeep Sardesai, author of The election that changed India, has pointed out, the main force behind the ‘Modi wave’ was the weakness and complacency of his opponents, in particular the Congress which has become a tired and worn out organisation with the passage of time. Unless the Congress is reinvented and given a facelift, it seems Modi is set to have a field day.

But now that the euphoria has abated, the BJP must try to face ground realities. The challenges facing Modi are enormous given India’s entrenched social complexities with its cacophony of peoples and faiths.

No doubt, the rapid economic growth which caused excitement and optimism during the Vajpayee’s era to the point of ranking India as a serious contender to China and even surpassing the US in the 2030s was nothing more like a silver lining occasionally flashing in the thunderous clouds. Despair replaced optimism during the Congress rule.

Modi now tries to bolster the stagnant economy by wooing each of his foreign tours investors into India. Going on the pledge of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ which

sounds pretty nice but which can remain an empty slogan. He has ordered the removal of the tedious red tape and instead promises red carpet to be rolled out to welcome investors.

Even then, the results are slow to come. For one thing, Indian end-products on global standards suffer badly from quality assurance. That can be a major hurdle in the development of business relationship with foreigners.

As Nobel laureate and Economist, Amartya Sen and Professor Jean Drèze have pointed out in their fascinating book An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, the economic growth in India does not benefit the population at large. A “vast majority of the country is still living in the Dark ages”, wrote Indian journalist Aroon Purie, a clear reference to the country’s lack of basic amenities and infrastructure although it is conceded India has made lots of progress.

However, human development, the main driver of economic growth and that which can give India a competitive leverage, has not been fully tapped despite the fact that the country is recognized as a potential global powerhouse with its millions of young people.

Sen and Drèze argue that India falters in human development. Because of India’s vast pool of human resources, it is human development, according to them, that can stimulate growth, create jobs and improve the conditions of the 350 M people living below the poverty line. The country is teeming with huge problems most of which have not been addressed by previous governments. Measured on the scale of a number of social indicators, like the lack of basic healthcare, inadequate highways infrastructure, poor sanitation, undernourishment, high infant mortality, girls’ schooling and shorter life expectancy, India falls behind some of its neighboring countries with the exception of Pakistan.

Primary public education, according to Sen and Drèze, remains in “abysmal shape” while countries like Bangladesh and Nepal have a higher literacy rate than India. The culture of corruption and bribery touches every level of the hierarchy, from the chaprasi (peon) to the top brass. Corruption has come to stay like a strong adhesive in the Indian system, giving rise to other ramifications and impacting negatively on India.

Can the corruption culture be weeded out, if not abated? According to an article in The Economist (April 2014), politicians and offi cials in India are reckoned to have taken bribes worth “between USD 4 billions and USD 12 billions during Congress’s tenure”. For Modi,who is said to be holding  a “clean” slate as at now, reforming India and tackling those hydra-headed problems through his development, economic and good governance agenda within a mandate of sixty months will indeed be a Herculean task.

To begin with, a new mindset of Indians, from feudal to modernity, that is crucial in laying the foundation of the “shining” India he is dreaming of, is a foremost necessity. Despite all Modi’s charisma and sincerity of purpose, can the ‘Modi magic’ work? If it does, only then can the 21st century be truly ‘India’s century’.